Much to the pleasure of our startups, António Vidigal dropped by Lisbon Challenge this Tuesday morning to talk about innovation and what truly boosts a startup’s chance of hitting a home-run.
After his insightful talk, we were able to catch António for a quick interview and got to know a bit more about the man behind the President. Here are the highlights from the interview:
-If you had to quit your job tomorrow and create your own company, what would you challenge?
-That’s an exercise I do everyday. I plan to start my own company in a couple of years. I’m the sort of person that has lots of ideas, but knows there’s a big difference between having tons of ideas and actually taking action. At the moment, many of those ideas revolve around Big Data. Companies like Yahoo and Google are using it a lot as a tool for strategic decision-making, but many SME’s don’t have access to these big and expensive off-the-shelf solutions, and could gain a lot from using them as well. I will probably tackle this area by creating a Big Data solution that’s combined with cloud computing, democratized and accessible to SME’s.
-You should apply to Lisbon Challenge when the time comes!
-I will! In due time.
-Which industries do you believe have the most untapped potential globally?
-At EDP we’re currently looking at really interesting ideas around clean-tech, where there is definitely a lot of potential. I think there are huge opportunities if we also look at combining energy with IT-systems, especially for early-stage startups with no or small access to capital, such as the ones you accelerate here at Lisbon Challenge. This may sound a bit exaggerated, but I do believe that the next Microsoft’s and Google’s will appear in this space. It’s an area I always mention because there is a lot of money up for grabs.
-If you could only give one piece of advice to college students thinking about starting a company, what would it be?
-All my years of experience point in the same direction: it’s all about the people. You shouldn’t work alone. Get a small team of three of four founders to start the company with. Make sure they are people you can trust and sympathize, because you will undoubtedly have many stressful situations that you will need to overcome without sparking internal conflicts.
Here at LC we especially enjoyed António’s relaxed attitude and approachability. We can’t wait to hear about his startup a few years down the road!